By Doug Draper
Residents in the Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie opposed to plans for a high-rise condo in their lakeshore community may feel encouraged by a recent decision from the Ontario Municipal Board.
A virtual image of the condo tower planned for the Fort Erie community of Crystal Beach.
That decision, tabled earlier this March, ruled against plans by a Toronto-area developer to build a 27-storey high-rise condo in the west end of Toronto, in the Parkdale-High Park area of that city near the water.
The OMB ruling argued that the proposed high-rise was “simply too large” and “inappropriate for (a) site” of mostly one-to-three-storey buildings.
That argument sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it?
At recent Fort Erie council meetings, a good number of Crystal Beach area residents got up and argued that a 12-story condo being proposed for the shores of that community would be out of character with most of the low-storey homes and businesses there.
But those opposed to the high-rise condo in Crystal Beach may not want to take the recent decision on the condo tower in Toronto to the bank if they are planning to make an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).
A virtual image of the condo tower approved by the Ontario Municipal Board for the St. Catharines community of Port Dalhousie without a word of protest from St. Catharines MPP and now Ontario Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Bradley
It is important to remember that this same OMB recently approved a plan by a private developer to build a 20-storey, condo tower in the St. Catharines harbour community of Port Dalhousie, and the area that tower will go in is a provincially designated heritage district.
If a high-rise condo can receive the blessing of the OMB in a heritage district, when Liberal cabinet minister Jim Bradley, an MPP for the St. Catharines riding and now the province’s minister of municipal affairs, would not raise a peep of protest, then what chance does Crystal Beach have? Crystal Beach has no designation as a heritage district and, even if it did, Bradley has already demonstrated in his capacity as an MPP for the Port Dalhousie heritage district in his home riding of St. Catharines that he doesn’t care – at least not enough to join fellow residents in his riding in speaking out.
That said, residents of Crystal Beach may want to appeal anyway, if only to show, once again, what a joke the Ontario Municipal Board is as an objective judge of planning matters it is in this province, and to expose the willingness of McGuinty, Bradley and company to go along with whatever planning decision the OMB makes.
Other than showing up the OMB for what it is, an appeal to that board may be a crap shoot given its approval of the condo tower in Port Dalhousie.
If you are interested in reading a recent Globe and Mail article on the Ontario Municipal Board’s recent high-rise condo decision in Toronto try clicking on http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/omb-decision-a-victory-for-opponents-of-tower/article1496895/
(Click on www.niagaraatlarge.com for Niagara At Large for other news and commentary of interest to residents in our greater binational Niagara area.)
Niagara At Large 
Thanks for the update. There was another decision in The Beaches that was also important: a sprawling four-story apartment complex was denied on the waterfront for similar reasons and that it goes against the existing neighbourhood plan. Same in Crystal Beach. Council approved a zoning change to allow a twelve story condo tower in Crystal Beach where three stories is the limit. I still can’t understand why only one person from the OMB got to make the decision about Port Dalhousie and that decision was upheld. Outrageous.
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